Designed by Hermann Zapf for D. Stempel AG, this typeface was originally intended to be the book or text weight for his Palatino font family. It was instead released as a separate face with the name Aldus in 1954. Aldus has the distinction of being lighter and narrower than Palatino, which makes it a good choice for book typography, though Palatino has also gained popularity as a text face. In addition to the regular book weight, Aldus has its own beautiful italic, small caps, and Old style figures. The typeface is named for the fifteenth-century Venetian printer and publisher, Aldus Manutius."